SALISBURY — The Salisbury City Council approved a contract with Summit Design and Engineering Services, PLLC at its Jan. 2 meeting totaling more than $222,000 that will go towards the design of a roundabout on Milford Hills Road to combat traffic accidents that occur on Brenner Avenue near Jake Alexander Boulevard.

Transportation Director Wendy Brindle said several people have complained over the years about the Harris Teeter and Aldi shopping area driveways being prone to accidents on Brenner Avenue. Roughly 13,000 vehicles make their way through Brenner Avenue per day, which is also the “primary route” to W.G. (Bill) Hefner Salisbury Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The city completed a study and found that 29 accidents occurred over a five-year period on that section of Brenner Avenue, 21 of them at the Harris Teeter and Aldi driveways.

“When you have five or more correctable accidents within a 12-month period, then you need to look at alternatives. In this case, we did have more than five angle accidents at Brenner Avenue,” Brindle said.

Brindle said the only way to decrease the amount of accidents close to Jake Alexander Boulevard is “to prevent left turns and cross movements there,” adding that the solution would be to build a roundabout at Milford Hills Road that can still “accommodate traffic that needs to leave those shopping centers and head towards Jake.”

The total project cost is $1,025,060 and $820,608 comes from the Surface Transportation Block Grant Program. The rest will be from city funds. Summit Design and Engineering Services’ responsibilities include base-mapping and design, exhibits for right of way/easement acquisition, environmental documentation, utility coordination, and bid documents involving final plans and specs.

The contract is expected to be executed later this month and the designs are to be finished by October.

David Whisenant recognized

At the beginning of the meeting, council honored WBTV reporter David Whisenant for his career in journalism and for his years of work informing the residents of Salisbury and Rowan County.

“Whereas the Salisbury City Council values the tradition of honoring special people, events and milestones, and David Whisenant is indeed a special person and a dedicated community leader whose work has touched the lives of countless people,” Mayor Karen Alexander said.

Whisenant was then given a moment to speak about what this means to him.

“I appreciate this very much, this is quite an honor,” Whisenant said. “It’s a rare thing that a television reporter gets to report news on his hometown for the station he grew up watching and the only station he ever wanted to work for. It’s a rare thing and I just appreciate the opportunities I’ve had to report on my hometown for more than 30 years.”